WORK PLAN/SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES

Acid attack cases in India, before 2013 were treated as any other minor cases of pick-pocketing, sexual harassment, robbery, etc. Based on which, the attacker of the concerned victim(s) was punishable for a sentence of 2-3 months and the survivors weren’t provided any significant compensation for the recovery from the aftermath of the attack.

Reach-out

Empowerment

Chhanv Rehabilitation

Centre, Delhi

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Sheroes Hangout Projects in Agra & Lucknow

Sheroes Annual Calendar

Donate-A-Face Campaign

AWARENESS

1.Women Empowerment Week/Elaan Event

This was an engagement program for acid attack survivors and volunteers organized in collaboration with UN Women, Iceland. It continued for a week and was concluded with Elaan, which was a media conference for delivering a message to the society gains concerns towards acid attack cases in India.

2. Spot of Shame

We visit places and install a pillar of Spot of Shame where the acid attack has happened in history. We reached 10 cities covering 10 prominent acid attack cases around the nation.

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3. Black Rose Movement

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Black Rose was a social reform movement which aimed at changing the attitude of any individual in the expression of discontentment towards any other individuals. As observed in the general the scenario that basic causes of acid attacks are majorly one-sided love affair, jealousy, envy, etc. and at the same time, an attacker is often a person very closely related to the victim. Black Rose Movement suggested ways of expressing such discontentment that despite committing any crime such as acid attack, an individual can express his/her disappointment or discontent through a letter with a black rose. The issue of anger, aggression or violence can be expressed safely and crime can be avoided. The basic principles are apparently based on those of Gandhian philosophy.

This is a yearly movement and commences in the preceding week of Valentine’s Day in the month of February in Connaught Place, New Delhi. In the very first year of movement, we also self-published and launched a book – A Black Rose. This is a book about the movement, describing the entire concept and philosophy in gifting a black rose instead of harming the person.

4. Shoot Acid Campaign Followed by Citizen Journalism

Shoot Acid Campaign was led by the army of volunteers registered on Paltan.in. After the regulations and amendments made by Supreme Court of India under Poisons Act on the sale of acid, the volunteers were given a task of bringing awareness followed by Citizen Journalism programme in which they visit the local marketplace and find out shopkeepers selling acid outside the perimeter of the regulation.

5. Rahgiri Event

Rahgiri events were planned by Times Group together with whom we reach on ground level to the general public in Connaught Place, New Delhi. We sold out pepper spray arranged by SAA for women against violence or any other mishap. Being a crowded location these minor awareness drives facilitated our many supporters and volunteers for other ground-level activities

6. Workshops & Seminars

We conducted several seminars such as a very a recent one, in Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie where a number of IAS/PCS officers participated in the seminar. Other such seminars were conducted by TEDx Talks, INK Talk, etc.

We also conducted interactive and informative workshops in academic institutions such as Galgotia University, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, VIPS and Amity University.

7. Through Social Media Platforms

Facebook has been a boon to our organization. The major awareness was led by social media. Since the starting of the campaign we reached people around the country through facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and other social media platforms. We have a central page of Stop Acid Attack campaign which reaches to at least 700,000 followers across 45 nations around the globe. We have a volunteering team on social media in 30 distinct cities of India managing individual Facebook pages for their own cities. In this way, we encourage and facilitate local people living somewhere near the location of acid attack survivor(s) to provide they help in whichever possible way needed.

8. Documentaries

Ample amount of documentaries has been produced and featured by prominent names such as BBC, Al-Jazeera, CNN-IBN, ScoopWhoop, NDTV, Quint, News Nation, BTV, etc. Award-winning documentary makers have come together with our organization and produced documentaries such as New-Born by Anand Gandhi, Chashni by an IITMumbai group of graduates and forthcoming making scheduled by Hollywood Director Roopa Shree.

9. TV Debates

We have been participating in the television debate shows such as those in CNN, NDTV, Aaj-Tak, Lok Sabha, DD, IBN7, ANI, ABP News, News X, Zee News and Times Now. We have also been featured for our efforts on TV shows such as Satyamev Jayate, Sri Shakti on DD National, BBC Special Show and AlJazeera.

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Indian celebrities in national showbiz also supported us in awareness drives such Mammothy in South India, John Abraham, Shibani Kashyap, Sona Mahapatra, MS Dhoni, Aseem Trivedi and Katrina Kaif across the nation.

REACH-OUT

Reach-out Project

Meanwhile, we had already built an army of volunteers around the nation on Paltan.in. The reach-out project involved these volunteer in research on more accurate data of acid attack cases. According to the NCRB report, there are 309 cases of acid attacks circa 2013-14. But practically these were those cases which filed an FIR on the case. However practical number was realized more than this. The reach-out project was to reach to the maximum number of acid attack survivors in India through our volunteers nationwide on Paltan. A volunteer from a specific demographic place can reach an acid attack survivor nearby or in a rural area and help in the documentation of that survivor. Paltan also helps in proper documentation of acid attack survivors. The documentation describes the medical, financial, household, educational, age, location, and social status etc. of any survivor. This research data helps us to understand better what an acid attack survivor may need from us. The analysis helps to provide explore more ways to help an acid attack survivor.

REACH - OUT

1. Paltan.in Web Development
(Online Social Volunteering Platform)

A social volunteering website is developed and introduced to a public domain known as “Paltan.in”. Paltan is arming ordinary people with the tools to start uprisings. Using the visual medium, and engaging with our supporters worldwide through social media and the internet, we aim to sensitize and educate people about the gruesome nature of this crime, and the oppressive nature of a gender-biased society. The web has proven a potent tool for us to communicate and reach to large public masses of people over exceptionally large demographic areas. Since the beginning, we utilized social media platform (Facebook.com) in generating our viral reach in public. The impact has always been very satisfying. Currently, we have more than 700,000 active followers who are consistently there for acid attack survivors and provide help in critical need of the hour.

In addition to this, we necessarily required a custom built an online platform for more accessibility, transparency and an effective medium of communication in between the acid attack survivors, the general public and the organization. Paltan.in was then developed. It is an ongoing project and is consistently being improvised as per the need of the activities and project of the organization. The impacts are laid on a wide spectrum and with rigorous utilization, it is adapting itself furthermore in effective assessment for other organizations and issues around the globe.

2. Medical Help

We conducted complete rehabilitation of 4 acid attack survivors on an expense of INR 12,000,000. Basic medical assistance is provided to all the acid attack survivors involved in the organization on monthly basis. However, some specific survivors required several surgeries and face reconstruction which was undertaken by the organization. Few such cases in the past were:

1. Kanmani Priya is a cancer patient and also an acid attack survivor. She was provided complete eye checkups and surgeries.

3. Tooba, Nisha and Sapna have been provided expenses for several in-need surgeries.

4. Muskaan of Bareilly and Reshma of Kanpur were given medical care on the immediate concern.

5. Dolly and Rupa have been provided complete rehabilitation.

3. Legal Help

We provide legal assistance to each individual survivor wherever needed. So far we have provided legal help to 30 survivors with us. The legal help includes filing a review petition, preparing legal and necessary documents of the survivors and filing RTIs for various legal issues in favor of the acid attack survivors.

4. Advocacy

We provide advocacy on ground level for the well being of acid attack survivor. Anshan Online was an online campaign on behalf of acid attack survivors and their demands from the government. We gained the attention of the government towardsacid attack cases in India through various such activities.

We have filed different PIL & RTI's in different Courts including Supreme Courts on the regulations of the sale of acid on the open market which is possibly used as a weapon. We also conducted meetings with Home Ministry of India, UN Women, British Embassy, US Embassy, Maharashtra Govt. and Uttar Pradesh Govt. for them to take a concern towards acid attack cases in India and the survivors of acid attack cases occurred in the past.